The Federation of Student Islamic Societies (FOSIS), a national umbrella organization representing Islamic societies at universities throughout the UK, has published a press release threatening to lead “disaffiliation campaigns” against the British National Student Union (NUS) over the suspension of NUS President-elect Shaima Dallali. Dallali had been under investigation by the Union since March 2022 over allegations of anti-Semitic social media posts. According to the FOSIS statement:
We are deeply concerned with NUS’ negligence in communicating with FOSIS regarding the explicit Islamophobic abuse Shaima experienced, as part of the NUS-sanctioned Independent Investigation. NUS states2, “if there was a need to get expert input on Islamophobia, we would approach FOSIS for guidance and to advise on who may be able to help.” To date, we have not been contacted nor consulted regarding this matter which leads us to believe that the outcome of this investigation will be far removed from giving Shaima justice for what she has had to endure.
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FOSIS, where Dallali formerly held leadership positions, accused the NUS of failing to address “institutional Islamophobia” and being negligent in communicating with FOSIS. Founded in 1963, FOSIS represents British Muslim students in 600 Islamic societies at universities throughout the United Kingdom. It has numerous ties to the GMB network in the UK.
In March 2022, Dallali was elected as NUS National President for a two-year term and would have been due to take office in July but was stood down after an investigation was launched into allegations of anti-Semitic posts on social media. Among others, she was accused of labeling a Jordanian cleric critical of Hamas a “dirty Zionist” and penning an article that called Global Muslim Brotherhood (GMB) spiritual leader Youssef Qaradawi the “moral compass for the Muslim community at large.” The affair prompted the British government to cut ties with and stop funding the NUS, removing it from all Department for Education student groups and replacing it with alternative student representation.
An April 2022 investigation by the Global Influence Operations Report (GIOR) found that Dallali has had additional problematic ties. This included serving as Project Manager for the pro-Palestinian advocacy group Europal Forum. (aka European Palestinian Communications Forum), a group whose leaders have historically been close to the GMB and the European Hamas support infrastructure.
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